The Hermit Club - Brentwood, Essex UK - 5 March 1999

Last Updated: 09 March 1999

Despite the onset of intense Friday night rush hour traffic,
a wise decision was made to venture to Brentwood to see Tracy
Hitchings perform with Landmarq. The 90-mile trek from
Swindon across the M4 and around the northern semi-circle of the
M25 London orbital thankfully took only two and a half
hours. Not far outside the city centre, the Hermit Club is
an intimate venue perfectly selected by Landmarq to expose
their new lineup to family and close friends. The gig was
the band's first full length concert to promote their latest
album Science Of Coincidence. Landmarq supported
Threshold earlier this year at London's Astoria Theatre to
vast acclaim with a shortened set.

Clive Nolan introduced us to Tracy Hitchings' vocal work
earlier this year which led to the development of our online
Illustrated Biographical Sketch
reviewing her career. Tracy is currently rated as one of the top
three female progressive rock vocalists -- each approaching
their craft in a unique way -- with the other two being
Annie Haslam
(Renaissance
and solo)
and Joanne Hogg (Iona).
Having seen Annie with Renaissance (six times), with her band in
Philadelphia and touring with David Biglin in
Brazil, and Joanne with Iona in
Southampton, we planned to seize the
opportunity to see Tracy perform in this year's first full
Landmarq show in Brentwood. One has only to hear the
theatricality of Tracy Hitchings' recordings to imagine
what a live performance would be like and, from the soundcheck,
it was clear that this concert would deliver to these
expectations.

The club filled up during the support act with all seats
occupied by friends, fans, family and those more curious. A
significant number stood through the entire show. The female
singer-songwriter support act, self-accompanied on acoustic
guitar, sang a short set of heartfelt songs for about a half
hour before Landmarq took the stage promptly at 9:15PM.

Opening with an exciting intro taken from the track
"The Cutting Room," Steven Leigh (keys), Steve Gee (bass),
Dave Wagstaffe (drums) and Uwe D'Rose (guitar) began
Landmarq's performance. Tracy Hitchings came to centre stage and
took the microphone opening her performance with "The
Vision Pit" from the latest album Science Of Coincidence.
(It is indeed interesting to note that Landmarq's last two
albums both feature a track named the same as the title of
their previous album!). The band's nintey minute set
included their entire new album and several tracks from their
prior releases. Here's the set list:

The artists of Landmarq when performing live are individually
remarkably strong. Their work as a group shows the high level
of integration and tight close coupling found in bands that enjoy
much more notariety. Landmarq is a seriously professional act,
and perhaps are among the unsung heroes in the progressive rock
scene. On stage they work extremely well together. Tracy
inspires the vocally-led portions of the tracks in a highly
animated style, interacting well with each of the other musicians
on stage. Joint instrumentals are extremely tight with solo-like
excursions clearly demonstrating the virtuousity of the individual
artists without being overcooked in any way. The band's extremely
talented sound man knows their music and did remarkable stunts with
the club's modest system to produce an incredible overall effect.

The band's stagecraft is as highly polished as sensitively
intimate and, as is typical of English progressive music, they
effectively balance the vocal parts with instrumental
movements. Although the concert certainly featured Tracy in
her role as the band's lead vocalist, it was indeed a Landmarq
concert in every respect. Tracy dominates the stage drawing total
audience attention when appropriate, but her act has been finely
honed to ensure the instrumentalists enjoy audience focus as well.
During several of the instrumentals, Tracy either sat to one side
of the stage or joined the audience. In the more theatrically
vocal numbers, she enthusiastically took the mic and moved about
humorously interacting within the other band members and engaging
the audience. Tracy's stage act must be seen to be effecively
appreciated. It is easy to see why the Classic Rock Society voted
her Best Female Vocalist twice (so far!).

The first two songs following the intro -- "The Vision Pit" and
"Heritage" -- were performed accurately with wonderful intensity
and warmed up the audience perfectly. "Lighthouse" propelled the
show to another level. Tracy's dynamic and animated performance
effectively illustrated the lyrics and brought a unique brilliance
to the song. The audience responded well to the music with
resounding applause in each between-song gap.

Tracy introduced "More Flames For The Dancer" as a theatrical
number written by Steve Leigh. With dramatic lyrics accentuated
by Tracy's on-stage persona, only the Landmarquettes' contribution
was missing from the live performance. The sound effects within
the recorded song were performed live by Tracy using an extra
drumstick to rhythmically bang the structures supporting Dave
Wagstaffe's drum kit. Well done indeed.

"Between Sleeping And Dreaming" was initially performed as a
keyboard backed solo vocal number, but a new reprise was added
that featured the full band. The two portions might work better
without a small break between them. The medley of "Ta Jiang"
and "Norovlya" from the band's earlier albums permitted the
instrumentalists to demonstrate what their individual and combined
talents quite well. The band's earlier "Solitary Witness" had
to be slightly reworked for Tracy's key yet the result was
stunning. Hopefully the band will re-record the track with
Tracy's vocals at some time in the future. It was wonderful
performed live.

The band performed the new album's title track dramatically
with exceptional precision. Similarly, "The Overlook," with
Steve Leigh's wonderful keyboard work and Tracy's soaring
sustained vocals, further illustrated the artists' individual
collective virtuousity.

The evening drew to a close with a substantially expanded
version of the highly accessible "Summer Madness." An edit
could likely be a "single" if the band were to release it
for promotion as one. Tracy again took the mic out of
the stand and bopped back and forth across the stage working
with each of the band members and engaging the audience to
create a high level of excitement before introducing the band
members, being introduced herself by Steve Gee. Steve also
publicly thanked this author for coming along to the gig!
A reprise of the song concluded the main set and the band
left the stage.

"Pinewood Avenue," another reworked track from the band's
former album The Vision Pit, made its first live debut
as the band's encore. With only two weeks of rehearsal, it
was performed with tremendous enthusiasm and precision; the
whole band joined in the choruses as their instrumental work
reached a final crescendo bringing the concert to a close.

The Landmarq artists returned to the club after the show to
individually interact with their fans, family and friends
and talk about their music, life and "the universe." Autographs
were provided to new fans and touching new personal connections
between the artists and their newest fans were also made. As
their equipment was disassembled to be transported home, the
evening came to an end.

Landmarq is a tremendously talented progressive rock band
that really must be seen live to appreciate their capabilities.
Each musician is a consummate professional, comparable to
more well-promoted artists in their capabilities
and overall virtuousity. The band together demonstrate an
extremely tight close-coupling even in the most complex progressive
instrumental excursions and are absolutely terrific when
performing live.
Click here
to access their own website.

Despite hearing quite a bit of her highly dramatic recorded
work previously, Tracy Hitchings' live performance as Landmarq's
lead vocalist exceeded my wildest expectations. She has a well-honed
stage persona, a dynamic and dramatic animated theatrical style and
an accurate and extremely powerful voice. With several other
projects planned for this year (including a planned reissue of her
1991 solo album From Ignorance To Ecstasy), her future is
very bright.
Click here to access our online
illustrated biographical sketch.